


To Hell and Back

by jeniezee



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Might as well post it, Tumblr: promptsinpanem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-21
Updated: 2012-11-21
Packaged: 2017-11-19 04:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/569150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeniezee/pseuds/jeniezee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hence is told the tale of a romance so worthy of legends it bent the will of Gods. This tale of the love of Peeta and Katniss. </p>
<p>Written for Prompts in Panem: Legendary Romances. Based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Hell and Back

He was the holy union of goddess and mortal with golden tresses blessed by the touch of Midas and eyes a shade akin to Poseidon’s domain. Given the gift of song and presented with a lyre by Apollo himself, he enchanted men, Gods, beasts, trees and earth of the wilderness alike.

No woman could resist his charm.

But he wanted only for the love of one young woodland nymph.

This spirited maiden with brown woven locks and radiant silver gaze had enamored him since he was but a lad. He was enraptured by her spirit untamed by man or God, the harmony between her and the land that she so tenderly threaded upon, and the fierce loyalty that bonded her and her sisters of the woods. 

The influence of his hypnotic prose on the will of others paled in comparison to the effect she had on him. 

The beauty of his words and soul reminded her of those bright yellow blossoms that appear in her dwelling signaling the annual rebirth of life, that no matter how dire their circumstances, their life and love could always prevail. 

And so they were wed, though their bliss was tragically abridged. After their blessed union, she danced with her sisters in the meadow, when suddenly a small winged beast imbued her olive-toned figure with venom from its barbed body. He, so euphorically content from occasions just prior, found her lifeless form with the necklace of pearl, whose luster was worthy of the resplendent light of her vivacious life, he had present to her to seal their union. That light now departed with the escape of her last breath. 

The world had never known a song of such despair. His unbounded grief spread through the lands of mortals, ascending to the heavens.

He so convinced the lords of Olympus, they urged him to descend to the land from which no souls claimed by their keeper ever returned to retrieve his wife.

The boy with enough love and devotion in his heart for a hundred lifetimes, willing to suffer the deaths of equally so many for his goddess, ventured to the land of final repose, vowing to bring back his love from this arena of death, for in the land of mortals no one needed him but he needed her to survive. Neither could truly survive without the other.

With his lyre, the boy sang tender strains of verse casting a spell so powerful, all listeners were consumed by his tribute to their transcendent love, enough surely to inspire a revolution against this separation so unjust.

So moved were the recipients of such glorious words that the eternally tormented occupants of this dominion were granted ephemeral bliss, their interminable punishment momentarily elapsed. Even the cruel and unpitying God who never relinquished a subject of his domain was forced to submit to the will of a boy so consumed with passion for his beloved. Even a God surrounded by perpetual suffering could not endure that of this lovelorn boy. In an act never witnessed in all of Olympus, this boy with the gifted tongue had released his woodland goddess from the grasp of Hades himself, with one condition that he may not look upon her until they have ascended to the land of the living.

When Hades sought her presence, there she appeared veiled by the flames of the underworld, a majestic shade of the heavens as created by the daily descent of Apollo’s blazing orb-drawn chariot, consuming her form as a dress only the God of this fiery realm can fashion. 

Distrusting the God known for trickery and deceit and fearful of an illusion, the boy foolishly turned to reach for his love before she crossed the threshold of freedom, needing to ensure her return to him was indeed real. He wanted it so desperately to be real. 

For that one brief moment of unadulterated bliss, he wished he could freeze this moment, right here, right now and live in it forevermore. 

As he had defied the one condition of her release, she was ripped from his grasp by arms ablaze to permanently return to her eternal prison. “Farewell,” she whispered softly, accepting the destiny that befell her. “Let me go.” 

“I can’t,” he replied plaintively at the fate of his doing as he watched her form again ignited, surrounded by dazzling flames that twirled her about, consuming her body until only wisps of black smoke remained.

He endeavored to follow her but alas, he was not permitted to return.

He wished to roam the earth, left with his solitude to forever mourn his lost love. Instead he was called upon by the indulgent Gods, requesting a mortal blessed by their grace to entertain at their wanton festivities. Refusing to play their games, he spurned the advances of the lascivious women of Dionysus.

These women of decadence so repulsed by his rejection, as he could never accept the carnal affections of any woman save for his paramour, tore him limb to limb. 

With his divine words of song ripped from this mortal plane, his broken body traveled down his watery grave accompanied by a plaintive symphony that arose from the earth, lamenting this loss of lyrical beauty. 

It was here where we, nine sisters of inspiration, discovered the last remains of his visceral form. His lyre was given a place amongst the stars, his beautiful words forever repeated by the birds of song that protect his grave. 

Upon his final journey to Hades’ lair, he embraced a welcomed death as it so mercifully granted the relief to be eternally reunited with his beloved. They embraced with eager arms and together entered the heavenly Elysian Fields. Together forever in this meadow, he softly declared so all beings deity and mortal may know, “Here is the place where I love you.”

Hence is told the tale of a romance so worthy of legends it bent the will of Gods. This tale of the love of Peeta and Katniss.

**Author's Note:**

> It's nothing special but I figured I post it anyway.


End file.
